


What's a man to do?

by Atominthewind



Category: Hollywood Undead (Band), Undead Origins (comic)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, I don't know if this is any good, Johnny-centric, No Romance, but god does this fandom need more fanfictions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28249323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atominthewind/pseuds/Atominthewind
Summary: Being the owner and only employee of a bar left King Don with quite a few interesting stories, but one of the weirdest ones has got to be the story of how he slowly got to know the chaotic assholes known as Hollywood Undead.It all started when a man stormed into a bar.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15





	What's a man to do?

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this a while ago when all of those Undead Origin inspired fics popped up and because I'm a sucker for outsider POVs. I just found it again and decided to finish it on a train ride home.  
> I feel like I need to address that I'm neither a native speaker nor an experienced writer, so criticism, tips and general advice are always welcome :)

To say that King Don had had a normal life would have been a gross understatement. Fresh out of jail, and with no future in sight an unexpected offer had gotten him out of the gutter and behind the bar of his cousin’s casino. A few years later, and he had opened his own bar a couple of blocks away, and his life hadn’t slowed down even a bit since then.

One might think that manning a bar is a boring job. Unless a customer started a fight with someone, nothing ever happened, but that’s not how Don experienced his job. Having a bunch of random strangers come here to spend the night was the perfect excuse for people watching, a hobby that he had taken up back in prison.

It was incredible just how much you could find out about someone simply by watching situations and life stories unfold right in front of you. You didn’t even have to get involved at all.

Just looking through the room he could make out a few familiar faces. There was a young couple that was sitting near the window, that had been coming here for quite a while. For the last year the two lovebirds had been trying to propose to each other but had both always chickened out. They were also very oblivious to their partner’s plans. There was also the undercover cop lounging on one of the barstools. He was trying to be discreet, but everyone knew what he was really doing here. 

Though tonight Don already knew that all his attention would be focused on one of his newer regulars, and one of the biggest mysteries that he had ever been presented with.

The tall, intimidating man had stormed into the bar one evening, though stormed might even be too gentle to describe the absolute aura of anger that surrounded him. That in itself wasn’t too unusual. Next to the typical fun-seeking customers and the people that just wanted to forget their life for a couple hours, those who drank in hopes of getting rid of their immediate anger were not all that uncommon in Don’s bar.

What was uncommon however was, that the man took his drink to a table in the corner and then proceeded to just stare at it for the next hour. He didn’t drink it, he just sat there, staring and grasping at the glass like it was his lifeline until he got a phone call.

And then, faster than Don could blink, the stranger had hung up, downed the drink, payed and left the bar in a hurry.

Something like that night didn’t happen again, but the man did come back a few nights later, and then again, and again and again, until he was there every other night, sitting at his table in the corner.

It had been two months since that night and King Don hadn’t really found out a whole lot about the man yet. He rarely spoke and always wormed out of any attempt at a conversation. He had played with the idea of doing some outside research and see if anyone else knew anything about this guy, he wasn’t all that discreet after all with his mountain of muscles and the big three tattooed on his throat, but ultimately the owner of the bar decided against it. After all there wouldn’t really be a whole lot of fun in that.

He did figure out three things though:

First of: he’s angry. That one should have been obvious from that first night when he came in but even now the near constant aura of anger that surrounded the stranger was incredibly noticable. At least he seemed to be able to control it well enough (While he was sober).

Second of: he’s intelligent. Very intelligent. And very well-spoken. Again, the two men only rarely talked outside of the necessary interaction, but Don was always surprised by the way the other skilfully used metaphors, symbolisms and a dozen other things that the owner of the bar is pretty sure were taught to him a long time ago, even though he couldn’t be bothered to remember them now. He’s also pretty sure that the book the man would take out of his bag on calm nights was something he read as a school assignment a long ass time ago.

Last, but not least: the man was a loner. He always stayed in his corner, not interacting with anyone more then necessary and keeping to himself even when invited to a game of darts or a free drink by the other patrons of the bar. Now, being a loner doesn’t have to mean that he was lonely. There’s quite a few people who would seek out solitude when being around others became a bit too much, but that doesn’t change the fact that the man always came to the bar alone.

Until, suddenly, that third rule changed.

It had started out as a seemingly normal night, a bit busy, but nothing out of the ordinary until suddenly a new stranger came into the bar and sat down at the corner table where the man was sitting, without even asking for permission or anything. Now, on the rare occasions that this happened, a glare from the tall, strong and fucking intimidating man would be enough to send anyone running for a more inviting group, but that’s not what happened with this particular stranger.

Instead the man… smiled.

That was certainly a sight that King Don was not accustomed to. The friendliest gesture he had ever gotten from the man was a polite head tilt, but not a smile. Never a smile.

When the stranger came to the bar a few moments later to get a drink of his own, he noticed that he too had a tattoo wrapped around the front of his neck, but instead of a single number, he had a whole bunch of them. Maybe his birth year? He looked to be about the right age for it to be. Though the teeth that surrounded the digits sure were an interesting choice.

King Don filed the stray thought that they could be part of a gang that identified each other through neck tattoos away for the next time he got really drunk with Jeff. His friend was always up for a good conspiracy theory. He was the second reason why Don started really watching his clients in the first place. It always gave him something interesting to talk about with his friend.

Nothing else of note happened that evening, though the steady murmuring from the corner was a very unusual addition to the sounds that would normally fill out the bar on nights like these. However, it didn't seem like Don would have to get used to anything, since the man came and stayed alone for his next few visits. Eventually, Don just stopped looking out for the stranger with the weirdly perfect eyebrows.

It took a while, but eventually something like that happened again. This night the stranger had seemed especially angry. Not like on the first night he came in, but it wasn’t all that far off. A few hours after he marched in, wordlessly took his drink and stalked off to stew in his own anger, another man sauntered in.

There wasn’t another word to describe the way the guy walked in. All relaxed confidence while wearing low-hanging baggy pants and a fucking poncho out of all things. Don had never seen anyone who looked so incredibly out of place yet felt like he just fit right in inside his bar.

He was so busy just staring at the unusual man that he didn’t even notice that he had walked up to the bar. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the stranger “A refill for the big boy and a beer for me.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea stranger”

“Dylan,” the stranger – now Dylan – pointed at himself before leaning against the bar. “Why do you think that homie?”

“Don. The guy doesn’t like most company on a good day. And todays not even a good day.”

“Nah, don’t worry about me. I can handle it.”

King Don shrugged as he started to fill up the glasses: “It’s your funeral, dude.”

Once the drinks were done, Dylan grabbed them, turned towards the table in the corner and started to walk towards it while screaming at the top of his lungs: “Yooooo, Johnny! Jay said I’d find you here. Hope you don’t mind!”

Don was so baffled by the sheer audacity of the man that it took him a moment to notice the fact that he finally had a name for the stranger in the corner. Johnny. Jay was probably the guy he had been referring to as eyebrows in his head, though it didn’t sound like a full name. More like a nickname.

The stranger – Johnny, it would take him a while to get used to the fact that the man had a name – had looked up from his now empty glass to glare up at Dylan. Now Don always thought that the whole “If looks could kill” thing was greatly exaggerated but by god, he hoped he would never be the one at the receiving end of that glare.

Dylan however seemed completely unbothered by it and just continued on his merry way until he had rounded the table, put the drinks down and slung an arm around Johnny’s shoulder. Jesus, this guy really had a death wish, didn’t he? Or he was just too high to notice bad judgment if it hit him in the face. There had been quite a smell of weed around him.

Johnny shook the arm around his shoulder off aggressively while he hissed something to his new drinking buddy. Dylan just put his arm back and stared talking, all while keeping a smile on his face.

It went on like that for quite a while. Johnny trying to get his companion to leave while the guy seemed to be having the time of his life just drinking and babbling on and on about something, though Don couldn’t understand what it was from over where he was standing.

After an hour or so, Johnny seemed to mellow down a bit and just accepted the fact that this was what his night would be now. A little while later he had relaxed enough to just be peacefully talking to the other man. There did seem to be an awful lot of teasing going on so maybe peaceful wasn’t the right term for whatever was going on, but at least it didn’t seem like Dylan was at risk of turning up somewhere dead in a ditch anymore, so Don stopped paying too much attention to them and returned his focus on his work.

That all changed when he suddenly heard booming laughter from the table in the corner. His head whipped around to stare at Johnny who was bent over and shaking from laughter. Dylan was sitting next to him, completely calm and looking incredibly pleased with himself while taking the last sip of his beer.

He then turned around towards Don and raised an eyebrow. The slight smirk told Don everything he needed to know. Dylan had taken their earlier conversation as a challenge, and he had clearly just won whatever competition he had thought up.

However, he did manage to make the ever-stoic-always-angry Johnny laugh, Don thought as he bowed his head in acknowledgement, he does deserve his respect.

Over the next two weeks, Johnny still came to the bar alone on some days, but sometimes he was accompanied by one of his friends. Jay – who Don learnt was called Jorel in the meantime – would come by more frequently, but occasionally Dylan could be found at the corner table as well.

It slowly started to become a game of “Who is Johnny bringing with him tonight” in Don’s head. Not that he told anyone about that. He didn’t even have to wait too long until he could add another guy to his roster for the game.

The first time Charlie came around, he did surprise Don, since he actually came to the bar with Johnny. Normally he would come alone and be joined by his friends after a little while, but this time Johnny had been accompanied by his friend from the moment he stepped foot into the bar.

It only took Don a passing glance at the new guy to determine that this one would be trouble. A fact that was soon confirmed by the outraged scream of “CHARLIE!” that resonated across the bar. Over the next few visits Don would come to learn that Charlie Scene had the survival instinct of a suicidal mayfly coupled with the impulse control of an avalanche.

It did get the guy into quite a bit of trouble and the first night that he spent in Don’s bar were no exception. He didn’t even now how this whole thing started, but the next thing he new a random guy who seemed to be close to twice his size was pushing Charlie up against the wall, holding him up by the front of his shirt.

Don was already making his way around the bar, though he didn’t really know what he was supposed to do if the attacker refused to listen to reason - as already mentioned, the guy was fucking huge – but as it turns out, he didn’t even have to interfere himself.

Before he was even close to the pair, someone had grabbed the stranger and ripped him off of Charlie. The guy whipped around – presumably to throw a punch – but backed off as soon as he met eyes with Johnny. The glare he had seen the first time Dylan came around had nothing on this one, and combined with the way every muscle in Johnny’s body was tensed up and ready for a fight… yeah, Don would back away too if he had been in the strangers place.

He felt a bit sorry for the guy, so he took it upon himself to grab him by the shoulders to lead him out of the bar before he pissed himself. And to ban him from ever coming again. He didn’t feel that sorry for him after all and Don always stood by his regulars.

When he came back in a bit later, he saw that the two friends were back at their table, drinking like nothing had happened, though he did catch Johnny glancing over to him from time to time. It was only in the early hours of the next morning, when he was starting to throw everyone out to close up, that he finally found out what those glances had been about.

While he was wiping down the tables, he suddenly heard a deep voice from behind him: “Hey, thanks for earlier. I don’t know what I would have done if that guy had been around any longer.” Don would like to pretend that he didn’t flinch at that, because goddammit, it should have been impossible for a guy Johnny’s size to sneak up on him.

“It’s no problem. I stand with my regulars.” That statement seemed to puzzle Johnny: “But Charlie isn’t your regular. This is the first time he’s been here!” “He might not be, but he’s here with you. And you sure are a regular. You come here nearly every night!” Johnny seemed to think it over for a few seconds. “To be honest I didn’t even think you’d notice…” “Yeah, well, I did notice. But you being a regular won’t stop me from throwing you out if you’re still here in five minutes. I really need to close up now.”

Johnny chuckled and Don was just glad that he had recognized his joking tone. He really didn’t want to get punched in his face today. Or ever, really. 

“Alright, alright. I can see when I’m not wanted. Good morning Don.” He turned his back and started to leave towards the front door.

“Good morning Johnny.”

Something changed after that. While Don wouldn’t really consider Johnny and himself friends, or anything close to that, there was no denying that that evening, morning, whatever had broken some sort of barrier between them.

They weren’t close or anything, but the simple fact that Johnny now actually responded to Don’s attempts at small talk was a small miracle in and of itself. It’s not like he knew the guy’s deepest darkest secrets (it still took Charlie slipping up to find out that Johnny’s name was actually George) but it felt nice to actually talk to the guy without feeling like he was just being a nuisance.

That’s not the only thing that changed though. The nights where Johnny came alone became few and far between and it got to the point where Jay was basically considered a regular himself with Dylan and Charlie not far behind.

Just watching the four in whatever constellation they showed up in tonight made it obvious that they were good friends (and also colleagues if Don didn’t misinterpret the snippets of conversation that he overheard).

However there still seemed to be something missing. Or rather someone. No matter how well the guys seemed to get along, King Don couldn’t get over the feeling that the group wasn’t complete yet. A pause in dialogue that everyone expected to be filled but no one to fill it, the passing mention of unfamiliar names, stuff like that just strengthened his belief that he still hadn’t met everyone.

His suspicions would be proven right just a few days later, though it would take him most of the… experience – there really wasn’t another way to describe it – to even realized that he had met one of the missing pieces to the puzzle he had started to assemble.

The day had already started weird. Johnny had entered his bar only a few minutes after he opened it up in the mid-afternoon. A few hours earlier then he usually would. This in itself didn’t necessarily need to mean anything, but from the moment he entered the bar it was clear that he wasn’t in a good mood, but it wasn’t his usual anger either.

Instead, Johnny seemed apprehensive.

He was tense. And the quick glances he threw at his wristwatch and the door left a certain impression. Like he was dreading something that he knew would have to happen eventually. As if on cue, the door opened and what could only be described as the human incarnation of a storm cloud strode in, his mountain of curls bouncing with every step of he took on his path straight to the table in the corner.

That guy was about as tall as Johnny, but not nearly as muscular, so unless he had a weapon hidden in that hair of his most sane humans would not have done what he was about to do. As soon as he had reached Johnny’s table, he slammed both of his hands on the table and started screaming: “Hey, asshole! Get up! You should’ve been there half an hour ago!”

Johnny glared up at the guy, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he just gripped his drink tighter with both of his hand.

“You hear me? Wake up bitch! We ain’t got enough time for you to be a pussy now!”

Jesus, if this went on any longer, Don would have to get a new glass soon. And probably also an ambulance. For the guy, not for Johnny. Though he would probably have to get an ice pack for Johnny anyway. Fluffy seemed to have some fire in him, so even if he had no chance of winning the fight, he probably wouldn’t go down without getting one or two hits in.

Speaking of fire in him: “Hey, bitchass! I know you’re not man enough to actually fight me, but I thought you’d at least have to courage to face fucking beanstick!”

“SHUT IT!”

Johnny had finally broken his silence. A heavy weight had fallen over the entire room, and by god, was Don glad that there weren’t any other customers yet to witness whatever was about to happen here.

“Oh, look, he finally speaks!” Curly said as he leaned back from the table and crossed his arms.

If this had been any other situation, any other human being, Johnny probably would have completely lost it at that, but instead, Johnny finally loosened his grip on the poor glass and looked up at the stranger.

“Look, Matt, can you just not? Please, I can’t deal with this right now…”

“I know Johnny, I know. But this isn’t about you. I know you and Aron are having some problems right now but quit being an idiot about it. This is bigger than all of that, and we can’t afford to lose everything we worked for. It’s just a couple months without killing him and then we’ll talk about it like the mature adults we’re supposed to be.”

Johnny just stared at Matt for a few seconds before sighing and standing up.

“Look, I’ll try but I don’t know if there’s any amount of talking that can save this.”

“Of course, there is! We’re not falling apart yet!”

This actually made Johnny grin: “Where did that absolute nonsense come from? I knew you looked like a sheep, but I didn’t know that you also had the intelligence of one!”

“Wow, here I am trying to help, and this is my reward? You’re a fucking asshole!”

“I love you too, bitch,” Johnny chuckled.

When they left the bar, Johnny still seemed reluctant, but at least he didn’t look like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore.

Though there were a few things that left Don to wonder: The way Johnny hadn’t beaten the guy to a pulp and the two men’s conversation had made it obvious that Matt was not only part of Johnny’s circle of friends, but also the specific inner circle of friends that were also his colleagues. But that also meant that this Aron guy that Johnny had trouble with was also part of this group.

But who just was that guy? The nickname “beanstalk” made Don think that he wasn’t any of the guys he already met. What did he do to make Johnny so reluctant to work with him for a couple months? Also, what was up with this “a couple months” thing? Normally when you work with someone you work with them year-round, but this made it seem like they would need to work closer with each other. Maybe they had some sort of project going on that required Johnny and Aron to work together closely?

Maybe he’d just ask Johnny the next time the guy came around. Or maybe he shouldn’t do that? He didn’t want to ruin anyone’s night after all.

As it turns out he didn’t even have to decide whether he would do it or not, since Johnny didn’t show up once for the rest of the week.

Or in the week after that.

Or in the weeks that followed.

Or the months.

At one point Don started to wonder if Johnny had ended up killing that Aron guy and was now rotting away in jail somewhere, waiting for his court date.

He quickly shook that thought out of his head though, he couldn’t afford to start to spiral down an endless loop of thought and memories right now. He didn’t like to think of his days as a jailbird and he really didn’t want Johnny to have to go through that.

A few months quickly turned into half a year, and Don had given up hope of ever seeing Johnny or his friends again at this point. He had shoved the jail-thought into the darkest corner of his mind, so he wasn’t too worried. Johnny was a (very) grown man and he could get himself out of trouble.

Why did he even care so much about a guy that he only spoke to a handful of times? Ah yes, because of his fucking people-watching. He didn’t like to get involved, but he got invested. So what if he shed a (hidden) tear and gave a round of drinks on the house when the couple finally managed to propose to each other? So what if his reaction to the (not so) undercover cop announcing that he left the force to follow his true passion of beekeeping was to basically buy the guys entire stock in advance to help him get started?

So what if he was starting to miss Johnny and his bunch of weird friends?

It’s not like he could do anything about it except wait and hope that he was wrong in his assumption that he would never see them step foot into his bar again.

It turns out that waiting _can_ pay off.

It does take a few more weeks, but eventually, Johnny walks in through the bar’s front door once more, accompanied by someone. It’s not someone Don knew, and he seemed very hesitant, but Don thinks this might finally be the famed “Aron”. Though if it is, Matt needed to up his nickname game, because the guy was neither tall nor lanky enough to warrant the nickname “beanstick”.

He was fidgeting with the sleeves of his black hoodie, and his gaze couldn’t seem to do anything but wildly zoom all over the place. If Don were to take a photo, he’s pretty sure everyone he showed it to would agree that the guy seems to be the very picture of nervousness right now, so maybe it was Aron and the two were about to have that talk that Matt teased six months ago, even if he made it sound like it would involve the whole group back then.

Also: SIX MONTHS AGO! Don knew that he had no right to storm up to Johnny and demand an explanation, but by god did he want to. Where had he been all this time?

After they got their drinks Johnny started to walk towards his table in the dark corner of the room, but he seems to notice the guys hesitation to follow him as he changed course to one of the more well-lit tables near the bar. They sat down across from each other and proceeded to absolutely refuse to make eye contact. Johnny achieved that by glaring at the table like it could unlock the secrets of the universe while maybe-Aron just stared into the middle distance as he tried to burry himself deeper into his hoodie.

It went on like that for a while, the two men just not talking and occasionally taking a sip of their drinks.

Now when it comes to silence, a moment of comfortable silence shared with a friend can be great, a cutting silence shared with an enemy can be invigorating, but this was neither of those.

This was just awkward.

It was like the two guys were trying to keep a careful distance from each other. Almost like a careful dance where you try not to overstep any boundaries the other might have, but you don’t know what those boundaries are so you just hide as far away from your dance partner because you don’t want to step on their feet.

It went on like this for another hour, and with every ticking minute it was becoming more and more painful to watch. Don was about to go over there himself to try and start at least _some_ form of basic conversation, when mystery guy beat him to it.

“You know, we don’t have to do this.”

Johnny slowly looked up into the guys face, who was still refusing to meet his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I know Jorel put you up to this. He told you to take me out so you could get to know me and stuff, but we don’t need to do this if you don’t want to.”

Johnny looked back down at his glass: “Look, just don’t worry about this, Danny.”

Goddammit, not Aron then. How many of these guys are there?

Danny actually looked over to Johnny this time: “You don’t have to spare my feelings. I’ll even tell Jay that we had a great night out if that’s what you’re worried about. I know you hate me.”

This statement seemed to genuinely surprise Johnny. His gaze snapped up from his glass to finally look Danny in the eyes for the first time that night: “Wait, what? Why would you th- Jeez, have you been thinking this the whole time?”

Aaaand, Danny was back to avoiding eye contact.

“Ok, no, you can’t just drop something like that, Danny look at me. I. Don’t. Hate. You.”

“You really don’t have to pretend, Johnny. I get it, you can’t just force yourself to like me.”

“No, I mean it. I know I haven’t been the best to you since this whole thing started, but I don’t hate you. The way I’ve been acting? That wasn’t your fault. Goddammit Danny, you basically uprooted your whole life for us! And have you met yourself? How could I possibly hate you. It’s just that Aron has been constantly on my mind ever since that whole bullshit went down, and it’s really hard to trust someone when you can’t stop thinking of the last guy that screwed you over. But that has nothing to do with you!”

Danny was too shocked to say anything for a while until: “Thanks, I…” the slightest hint of a smile appeared on his lips “I think I really needed to hear that, Johnny.”

The two men stayed mostly silent for the rest of the evening, but the silence wasn’t all that awkward anymore. It still wasn’t the silence of long-time friends, but it had lost its cold edge. It seemed…cosy.

Don smiled to himself and went to the other end of the bar to serve someone a drink.

And if he gave all of them a free drink the next time the entire group came over, no one noticed. Just like he didn’t notice the way too generous tip that someone had slipped into his pocket until much later.

It would only be the first of many.


End file.
